Last week I came to Michigan quite early to spend lots of time with Jeff since I was on my spring break. Prior to this event, I had been testing and working with Dirk Wagner and Robert Scarpelli on their Dracopal deck via Skype and sequential Dueling Network grinding. The end product was a deck that aimed to create a field with Naturia Beast with a least one solemn set. The idea was to “FTK” most match-ups because they wouldn’t be able to make a play and then we’d kill them on our following turn. Lots of success on DN Read more

A few weeks ago Jeff messaged me and told me about a new series of cards that he thought were being overlooked. Much to my own surprise Jeff was talking about the Phantom Knight cards that were being released in the new Wing Raiders set. Jeff began working on the deck on his own because I wasn’t sold immediately and knew that he would probably come up with something better than my own creation anyways. Two weeks ago I visited Jeff and was ready to see his own Phantom Knight deck in action against my Burning Abyss deck. In my Read more

Practice makes perfect right? Playtesting is a very common form of practice for those preparing for an event, which is typically a process of identifying your good/bad match-ups and refining them through various trials of matches. Lets take Yugioh out of the equation and substitute it for American Football because it is the post season after all! With four teams remaining out of the entire culmination of the NFL, one could say that these are the best teams in the country. Lets use each team and substitute them for a different deck in today’s metagame. New England Patriots: PePe Read more

Hello everyone, I’m back this week to recap my Third Place finish at ARG Circuit Series Orlando! Leading up to ARG Orlando I had my heart set on playing PePe, or some deck that utilized the powerful pendulum mechanic. As I played more and more matches with PePe I began to feel myself losing control of games just because my opponent had Wavering Eyes and I did not have an out (Damage Juggler/Wavering Eyes). At first I thought that these games where I was losing control could have been the result of making an incorrect play, but then I noticed Read more

Earlier this week I was browsing Zodiac duelist and came across something that peeked my interest. The particular individual wanted to know how to build a Cube, which immediately gave me my article topic for the week! I first learned how to Cube draft in Michigan with Jeff and everyone at Voltage Games and I was immediately hooked. Cube quickly became one of the things I looked forward to the most when I visited Michigan and I wanted to bring the draft back home to my friends in Wisconsin. So What’s Cube All About? Cubing is as simple as Read more

Several months ago my phone screen lit up with a text from Jeff informing me that there was a new best deck in the OCG, which prompted me to ask what the best deck was. He told me it was called “Magicians”, which confused me at first because Nekroz was still alive and well (in the OCG), despite various hits on the ban list. That same day I received another friend informing me of a Pendulum takeover occurring in the OCG. I immediately went to YGOorginization and did some research on the Magician deck, which abruptly stopped because Magicians were Read more

If you want to be the last man standing at an event, then you need to practice like that same man. While playtesting you should be completely focused on your game and make the best play with the cards you are dealt. There’s no reason to practice something incorrectly because those same incorrect motions will translate into the games that matter. This is a topic that hits very close to home because I used to have some of the worst testing habits and I did not really know how to properly practice for events. This week I’d like to go Read more

If you’re as bored as I am with the current metagame, then this is surely the article for you! After what seems like an eternity, there is finally a set release that is bound to spice things up before the inevitable world is turned upside down with BOSH’s release. In the wake of BOSH’s impending storm, lets enjoy the calm before the storm and delve into one of my new favorite decks, Majespecters! Majespecters are a deck that is a culmination of a variety of different animals that all have special effects. Majespecters are also a Pendulum deck, which Read more

As promised from last week’s article, I have decided to share the guide I have developed over the past 8 months of playing Nekroz. The original purpose for creating this guide was to simply write down all of the card’s effects and teach myself how to play the deck for the Columbus Regional that I inevitably took 1st at back in February. After that regional, I had obviously learned a lot about the deck, and continued to write down my thoughts until I began to realize that I was formatting it into something more. As months passed I added more Read more

September is almost over and the new season of competitive play has fired up these past few weeks! With the hiatus of the Circuit Series, I’ve been playing more and more of Konami’s format at regionals in Indianapolis and Chicago. With YCS Dallas quickly approaching, I wanted to begin testing the Nekroz deck I had planned to take to the event. With Norden finally legal in the TCG, I had developed a Nekroz deck based around Norden that slaughtered the mirror match and easily beat Qliphort, which was a deck I personally struggled against. Aside from being strong against the Read more